math games Archives | Lucky To Be In First

November 20, 2019 Leave a Comment

Games to Help Build Mastery

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…I LOVE using Math Games in the classroom to help my little learners master their math facts and skills! I love that students don’t even realize they are practicing math and just think we’re playing!

We all know that kids gain mastery with more exposure. To encourage my students to master their facts, we use Smart Cookie Math – a systematic, sequential program that gradually helps students gain mastery. You can read more about it here or check it out on TpT or in The Lucky Store.

But in addition to fact fluency tests, we play TONS of games! Check out a few of our recent favorites below.

Circling Sums

My kids can’t get enough of this game! The goal is for students to circle as many pairs {or trios} of numbers that add up to the target number

The boards can either be used as a game between players or a review for a student to play on their own.

The best part? It’s easy to prep – simply print out the desired game board {in color or black & white}, laminate, and off they go!

Circling Sums includes boards for Making 5, 10, 12, 15, and 20.

Find it on TpT or in The Lucky Store.

Circling Differences

Since my kiddos are always so pumped to play Circling Sums, it made perfect sense to create Circling Differences to master subtraction!

It’s played exactly the same but I’ve included more levels {since this is the trickier skill for most!} Game boards for Mak 1 – 10 are included.

Find it on TpT or in The Lucky Store.

Balancing Equations

One of the hardest skills for my students to understand and master is balanced equations! To give my students many opportunities to practice this challenging concept, we often pull out Balancing Equations.

While you could make this a partner activity, I tend to use it as a solo activity. The goal is for students to determine equal equations.

To hold students accountable for the work, they fill out the Balance the Equations printable.

I’ve included lots of options – balancing numbers, balancing addition, balancing subtraction equations, and balancing addition vs. subtraction equations {by far the most challenging set!} The sets are color-coded to make them easier to differentiate.

You can find it on TpT and in The Lucky Store.

Peek-A-Book Addition

With Peek-A-Book Addition students take a piece of scrap paper and solve the equation. Then, they flip the card over and check if they got the answer correct. I love when an activity is self-checking!

They’re easy to prep – simply print, laminate and poke out the hole. After a few sessions of finding cards everywhere, I wisened up and finally put the cards onto a metal ring.

I’ve found that some students just keep pulling Peek-A-Boo cards out. No sweat off my back – we’re sneaking in that fact practice 🙂

You can find it on TpT and in The Lucky Store.

Looking for more math games to use in the classroom? Check out the FREEBIES in this post or this post! And see how I’ve snuck in even more math using snap cubes and pattern blocks here!

April 1, 2017 Leave a Comment

Beat the Clock! Interactive Math Activities

I’m always looking for different ways to get my students to review the math concepts I’ve taught! And more importantly, I want them to be as engaged as possible!

So, I’ve created a new product to accomplish both.
Drumroll, please…Beat the Clock is here for just that!

Beat the Clock is a series of PowerPoint presentations that involve students actively working right along with the slideshow!

To start, everyone gets a recording sheet. I’ve included two options in each pack – choose which works best for you!

This Beat the Clock recording sheet allows students to check if they are right or wrong…once the answer is revealed!

When all of the students are ready, you turn the PowerPoint presentation on…and off they go! It’ll run on its own, so you can roam the classroom and check in on your little learners.

Check out Beat the Clock in action!

Beat the Clock gives students 10 seconds to write the answer on their recording sheet.
A few seconds later, the answer pops up on the next slide.

Students record their answers as the problems appear. Then, they check to see if it’s right or wrong!

The slides are editable {for most of the skills}, so you can change the problems and/or timing to meet the needs of your students.

I’ve got a growing bundle going, so snag it before the price goes up!

Slainte!

November 1, 2016 1 Comment

Secret Agent Learning

Did you know your classroom is full of little Secret Agents running around?

Secret Agent Learning will get your students excited to review essential Math & Language Arts skills!

Introducing Secret Agents to Your Class

To build up the suspense, I left a few clues around the classroom. I bought the cheap disguise glasses at the dollar store!

This really built up curiosity among my students. You know how nosey kids are! They started asking tons of questions about what everything was for and more importantly, if they could touch it and use it!

What Does a Secret Agent Do?

To get our activities going, I asked the students what they thought Secret Agents did.

There must be a lot of cartoons out there about Secret Agents because they gave me the exact answers I had hoped for! I was SUPER impressed that a first grade was able to come up with the word stealthy {and actually could explain its meaning!}

We created this anchor chart together, but I can’t draw at all, so I typed up their answers to share with you! We chatted about why each of these qualities are important in a Secret Agent.

Click on the picture to grab the file to use in your own class!

First Mission

At this point, you could feel the buzz around the room! The kids were excited to get working!

But, we quickly reviewed their job. Obviously, for each pack you use, there is a different “mission” whether it’s short vowels, telling time or finishing up number patterns.

Click on the picture to grab this poster for your room!

I explained to the students that the point of this activity was NOT to simply use the decoder to reveal the answers. Their job was to solve the problem on their own…and THEN check to see if their answer was right!

I explained to the students that it was okay if they got the wrong answer – they just needed to go back and figure out why it was wrong.

Secret Agents at Work!

At this point, you could feel the buzz around the room! The kids were excited to get working!

Using their decoders and recording sheet, the students walked silently {can you believe it!?} around the classroom to find the hidden problems.

Again, I stressed that it was more important to write the problem and the answer BEFORE they checked for the answer!

The students were excitedly hopping from problem to problem to figure it out!

I couldn’t believe they were this excited for math problems!
The pictures are making it difficult to see, but the answer is exposed once a student holds the decoder up to it! Taking pictures was a challenge because my reflection kept popping up 🙂

My heart skipped a beat when I heard a kid say, “Miss Lynch makes THE funnest activities for us!” {I didn’t want to break it to him in that moment that ‘funnest’ is not quite a word! }

But isn’t that what we want our students to think about school? That they’re learning BUT still having fun?

Extending the Lesson

Each Secret Agent pack is filled with at least 3 decoder activities plus printables to match the skills.

The first printable {from Secret Agent Addition} asked the students to use the secret code to solve addition problems. Huge crowd pleaser!

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This next activity asks the students to solve the addition problems and color odd and even sums different colors. It takes what they did during the decoder actvity and extends it a bit more.
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Secret Agent Language Arts

Later in the week, I introduced my students to Secret Agent Short Vowels. For this activity {which I use during Daily 5} I simply punched a hole in the corner of the cards and used a binder ring to secure them together.

Instead of cruising around the room, the students complete the activities at their own desk. Still a big crowd pleaser! I store the week’s activity inside of a cute little toolbox I got at a local dollar store!

How to Store Secret Agent Learning

If you plan to use more than one Secret Agent Learning pack in your class, you’ll want an easy way to store the goodies! I stopped by Michaels to grab this photo box organizer. It’s also available on Amazon here {but if you have a coupon at Michaels, it’s cheaper!}

It allows you to grab one set out at a time! I also store the decoders right inside the box, too!Of course, I used my Silhouette to make some fun words for the front!

A Couple Things to Know

Every printer prints the secret message differently. I have printed on countless printers to try it out! I’ve found that it’s best to print on an inkjet print using regular ‘ol copy paper.

Laser printers and card stock are fine, but the best results come from just the basic printers!

I make it a point to tell my students each time we do this activity that it is not important {or impressive!} if they can see the “answer” hidden. The point of these Secret Agent Learning activities is to give your students a new way to practice skills!

Directions are included in each pack to create decoders yourself. You can also purchase a class set of decoders HERE on TpT! They’ll be a bit more durable than the ones you’ll make, but they work exactly the same!